


Like A Crack On Porcelain

by OfficialZacheroo (DeeperPans)



Category: OFF (Game)
Genre: But also snarky, Fluff, Headcanons Everywhere, Just some stupid thing, Kinda sad but not really, M/M, Only kinda spoilers for literally one part in Zone 3, Sort of OOC but I'm passing it off as headcanons, The player is kinda there too but only for a little bit, The player's only there cause he needs to be, Warning very sappy and sweet, Zach's face, be prepared for feels, because why not
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-13
Updated: 2015-04-13
Packaged: 2018-03-22 06:52:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,156
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3719257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeeperPans/pseuds/OfficialZacheroo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just another fic where The Batter wants to see Zach's face but Zach doesn't wanna show his face cause he's self conscious about it and he gets all sad but then there's a happy ending. Sorta cliche and it gets very very sappy. No more spoilers for you, read it to find out the details of the sappiness.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Like A Crack On Porcelain

**Author's Note:**

> It's my first fic for this fandom (but not my first fic ever) so yeah. Don't even bother reading it it's not that good tbh. (Even though that's just me not giving myself enough credit but whatever.)
> 
> I used the name DERPDER for the player because that's what I put as my name for the actual game and also I couldn't think of anything else. The player's kinda stupid like that.
> 
> (Also, this should go without saying, but please do not copy/repost this story anywhere without my permission. It took a long time to write and I really wouldn't like it if someone else were getting credit for my work. Thanks for being respectful of my wishes! :3)

     I was teleported back to the start after my fifty somethiningth time in that accursed cafeteria. Why did it have to do that every time? Just because I was led, what? A _centimeter_ out of line? I can’t believe this place sometimes. I stood back for a second, looking at the looming orange building in front of me, thinking about how many more times I would have to do this all over again. My puppeteer walked me over to where this one Elsen sat, looking off into the distance. I attempted to talk to him.

 

     “The plastic is beautiful today…” He said the same thing last time. I could hear my puppeteer wonder why he didn't say anything else, but he promptly forgot about that and decided that it would be a good idea to try the cafeteria again.

     “I think my stamped note can help me here… DERPDER, you can display it at any time by pressing the shift key.” I stood in the green room, reminding my puppeteer to look at the layout on that stamped note I had picked up earlier. Maybe this time he’d _actually understand_. It started to feel less like a script and more like a routine by now, as did the endless battles that I had to go through, only to do it all over again.

     Surprisingly, this time, he was able to lead me through it without bumping into any specters. I walked towards the door farthest to the right, wondering what awaited me in this room, while the player’s thoughts were more along the lines of “ooo, door!” I was shocked to see someone wearing a cat mask. I wonder who that could be…

     “Good day, dear reckless accomplice!” He began. Well, this was new. “You have obviously recognized me at first glance! I’m your friend, the Judge!”

     “Can it, Zach. I know it’s you.” I’d gone through too much today and this was just the icing on the cake.

     “...So my disguise is no match for your unforgiving eyesight...” I stood there, listening to him talk about how Pablo wasn’t doing too well and that he would be filling in. I’m assuming this "Pablo" is the Judge, although I’ve never heard him called that before So, does that mean I’ve got him following me now? Great, just what I needed. Another thing to deal with. He told me that I should check all the other rooms and whatever, like my puppeteer wasn’t going to do that anyway. Before I left, however, he whispered something so the player wouldn't hear. "I do realize that this is a fanfiction, but nonetheless you must try to stick to the script when the player is around. We are, after all, still in a game." I quickly nodded in understanding before I was forced to leave the room, only to promptly bump into another specter.

     Once I finally got through that place after about ten more times, I did everything that I’d done in every other zone. Fought specters, got another Add-On, talked to some Elsen, nothing new or special. That is, until I talked to Zacharie again and had to “race” him to Area 2. I got there as soon as possible but he had already beaten me.

     “It was scripted. You had no chance of success anyway…” he said. Go figure, he _would_ do something like that. He proceeded to give me a golden flesh to “help me forget the pains and sorrows of such an unappealing defeat.” It’s not like I cared anyway, I knew the whole time that even if I didn’t beat him, he’d still give me something for free anyway. It’s just what he does for everyone. At least, I _think_ he does that for everyone…

     “If you find something suspicious, don’t hesitate to let me know as soon as possible.” I was snapped out of my train of thought as he left. My puppeteer forced me to stand there for a couple of minutes after he disappeared into the building directly in front of me, but then decided to follow him in. He was standing behind a desk with that new cat mask on and there was a yellow save block in the middle of the room. I was led right over to the floating cube, saving the game, but not quite done yet. The player really wanted to see what was in the other room before leaving. Walking over, I saw that Zacharie was there again, but this time he was wearing his regular old toad mask. DERPDER was apparently satisfied with merely seeing what was here, as he led be back to the first room. I walked back over to the block and saved again, sensing that my puppeteer was logging off for the day. Feeling the strings snap, I could finally move freely once more. I went over to Zacharie standing behind the counter after, wanting to talk to him.

     “So, what’s new?” He asked, as if he didn’t know the answer to that. I hadn’t done anything, how would there be something new?

     “What do you think is new?” I put my elbow on the counter and rested my head on my hand so I was looking up at his face. This cat mask was going to take some getting used to. “And do you really need to say your lines? The puppeteer’s gone now.”

     “Touché, dear Batter.” He meowed before this sentence, had he been doing that the entire time? Just one more thing to get used to, I guess.

     “What’s with the meowing?” I thought as long as I was here and the question was fresh in my mind I might as well ask. There was no harm in that, right?

 

     “Just thought it would be a nice change to go with the new mask. After all, if I’m a cat now, why wouldn’t I meow?” I smirked at this, I never thought I’d see the day Zach would dress like a cat.

     “What, do you have a tail, too?” There was no way to hide the fact that I was smiling a little bit. If there was one thing in any of these zones that made me happy, it was Zach. Everything else is so serious, the least I could do was spout some playful banter with my friend. I can’t believe I actually called him that, a friend.

     “No, although that idea isn’t so bad. I may have to do that one of these days.” Was he serious? Or was he just saying it to play along? It was always hard to tell these things around him, he always wore a mask so you couldn’t read his face. There was that little part inside of me that wanted to know what his actual face looked like, but I knew it wasn’t really my business. Still, the thought was there.

     “Hey, can I get some items?” I was more than due for an upgrade by now. The player, as always, was too dumb to think about upgrading well enough before a new zone. I almost died twice so far in his control.

     “I’m sorry, I can’t help you there.”

     “What? Aren’t you the items guy? Like, the _only_ items guy?”

     “First off, you can’t buy items anyway, not without DERPDER. Second off, try next door.” He gestured to the left, I could see a gap in the wall that probably connected the two buildings. Was he really going to put me through this? Defeated, I sighed and walked out the door of this room, only to go through the adjacent entryway and see a practically identical room, sans save box. Through the gap in the wall I saw earlier, Zacharie emerged wearing his usual toad mask. Seeing that made me smile again.

     “You still wear that thing? I thought you did the cat one now.” I walked up to this counter and took the same position as earlier. At least I could actually see his eyes through this one.

     “Yes.” He laughed his usual, three-stage laugh. It was good to hear something so familiar again. “You see, one of them is the one I wear when selling items, the other is solely to take Pablo’s place.” Still didn’t make sense to me, why didn’t he just sell items with the cat mask on? Whatever the case, the fact that he went through so much effort just because he wanted to was laughable and, I hate to admit this, a bit cute.

     “Whatever floats your pedalo, Zach.” Since there wasn’t much else to do with my puppeteer absent, I decided to try to mess with Zach a little bit.

     “Alright, I’ll be going now…” I said as I walked out the doorway. I let my voice trail as I exited and went straight for the other room. I wanted to see if he would come back over here with that cat mask on. Just as I assumed, he did. It was amazing how quickly he could change masks. I was in the middle of wondering if he had any practice with that. I hadn’t even noticed that I subconsciously walked right up to the counter.

     “Anything new this time?” What, did he tell himself that he _had_ to ask that? I had literally just seen him less than a minute ago. Why he asked that every time despite not having to follow the script will still be a mystery to me. It didn’t really bug me too much, I just wanted to know.

     “Yes, I was attacked by a million specters at once and defeated them all in less than a minute.” I wasn’t really surprised when he laughed at that. Actually, I was sort of hoping he would.

     “My, that’s a _very_ interesting story.” If I could see his eyes right then he’d probably have rolled them. I could tell from his voice that he was being sarcastic, but in a fun, playful way.

     “Well, I have to go now.” I took off, only to do the same thing I did last time except reversed. I walked into the room on the left and, just as expected, he popped up wearing his normal mask. I barely even said ‘hi’ as I walked back to the other room. He did it again. I went over to the second one again. Same thing. I repeated this over and over again until I was sure he was tired of it. But since I couldn’t read his mind, I had decided to ask him instead.

     “You tired yet?” This time I actually smiled, as genuine of a smile I could get.

     “If that is the purpose of this tedious exercise, I’ll be glad to inform you that it has not worked as you would like it to.” He said that, even though his breath seemed a bit labored by now. As I stood there, I had an idea. If I could possibly get him so tired that he wouldn’t have enough energy to change his mask in time, maybe I could sneak a peek at his face.

     “Alright, you got me. I’ll stop.” I even put out my arms and dropped my bat on the ground for dramatic effect. I picked it up and leaned on the counter again. “I will have to admit, though, it was fun while it lasted.”

     “Yes, yes, haha, fun times all around.” I hadn’t ever heard him sound so sarcastic before, and it almost made me laugh. Usually I was so serious and to-the-point, but when I’m around Zach, that all goes away and I feel like I can actually have some fun. I wouldn’t dare ever tell him that, but it’s true. Surprisingly.

     “Alright, I guess I’ll actually wander around this time.” What he didn’t know was that I had a plan. Maybe if I tell him that and sneak into the other room when he’s not looking I can catch him without his mask on or something. I only hoped he couldn’t read my mind. Leaving the room, I got one more glance at Zacharie with his cat mask on, standing behind the green counter. I walked past the doorway to the other room, shaking my head as to sort out my thoughts. Just as I had suspected he would, Zach had already changed into his toad mask, waiting to see if I would go back on my promise and enter the room again. I walked all the way to the entrance of the treatment area, but then turned back. I couldn’t go in anyway, without the player around I wasn’t allowed to go to areas that I hadn’t seen already. As quietly as I could, I snuck over to the left room again. I peeked my head through the door to see that he wasn’t there. The plan worked so far, but now I had to execute the most difficult part of the whole thing, seeing if I could get over to the counter at least. I tried my best to not make a single sound the entire way, succeeding in the end. Looking over the counter, I could see into the miniature hallway connecting the two parts. There was just enough room for a chair, which I could see Zach sitting in. Just as I had thought, he wasn’t wearing a mask. I mean, it kind of makes sense, who would want to wear an uncomfortable thing on their face all day? Since he was mostly turned away from me, I couldn’t actually see his face. So, I did the only logical thing to do.

     “Yo, Zach!” I practically shouted in his direction. Startled, he dropped his mask, which he was holding in his hand. It was in that moment I got a glimpse of it, but only until he came to his senses and was able to get his mask back on.

     “Y-yes, amigo? What brings you back here so soon?” I could see he was still nervous because of the incident. He was probably worried that I had seen his face, and he would’ve been right, but only slightly. Since he had practically lightning-quick reflexes, I only caught a glimpse as I had said earlier. What I did see was a line of sorts that appeared to go across his face. I wondered what that was. An extra mask string? A scar? Thoughts flooded my mind, but I was suddenly snapped back to reality.

     “Do you need something?”

     “Huh? Oh, yeah, right. Um, I just wanted to say hey again before heading off.” I wasn’t the best at coming up with excuses, and I don’t think he bought it. “So, hey again.” I tried to lessen the tension by smiling a little bit. It didn’t work. It was apparent that he didn’t want anyone to see his real face, and I _did_ sort of invade his privacy a little bit. There was a nagging in the back of my mind; I didn’t want one of my only friends to hate me, especially not Zach.

     “Yes, well, hey again to you too.” He did his signature laugh, but something seemed a little bit off about it. More than likely he was still shaken by my surprise visit. He probably wanted me to leave ASAP after that. I actually felt sorta… bad. Like I should apologize. I started to walk away, when I suddenly stopped and turned around.

     “Hey, Zach?”

     “Yes? What is it?” I really did owe him an apology for bursting in like that, it’s the least I could do.

     “I’m, um, sorry for surprising you earlier. It wasn’t a good idea, and I guess I kind of invaded your privacy. Do you forgive me?” I couldn’t believe I had actually apologized to someone for something. I wasn’t used to doing that.

     He laughed again. “Oh, it’s not a problem. To be truthful, I’ve fallen into the same routine lately, and a little shock was necessary.” It was a pretty bad excuse and I could tell that it wasn’t entirely true, but who am I to argue with him? But I still wanted to know more, I just didn’t know how to approach the situation exactly.

     “Really? A-alright.” I stood there, in the middle of the green room, silent. There were so many things I wanted to ask, so many things I wanted to know, but how would I ask them? I was lost in my thoughts almost completely, so much so that I hadn’t even noticed that I had been standing there for about five minutes.

     “Are you okay, amigo?” I also hadn’t noticed that the entire time I had been standing like a statue, I had been staring straight at Zach. I shook it off, trying to come back to my senses.

     “I’m fine.” But I still felt like I couldn’t move. I wanted to continue on my way out the door to go purify some more specters, but I also wanted to say for some unknown reason. Maybe it was because of the sheer amount of unanswered questions flooding my brain, waiting to be asked. I tried to stop thinking about it and move on, both of those things being practically impossible. I told myself to just turn around and start walking, and I did. I just forgot to turn around first. I ended up walking back to the counter where Zach was still standing, staring at me. It wasn’t long before I was face to face with him again and asking one of the many questions floating around my mind.

     “Why _do_ you wear a mask?” Finally, it was out. The question hung in the air in awkward silence for a couple of minutes or so until the silence was broken by Zacharie.

 

     “Well, the thing is…” he trailed off, as if he wasn’t exactly sure how to word his reply. The best I could do was stay quiet and wait for his answer. “I’m… I’m a little…”

     “Self conscious?” I thought I could at least help him find the words after everything I’ve put him through so far. To my surprise, he nodded. “Why?” I immediately regretted asking this, as he seemed even more nervous than before. For some reason I thought now would be a good time to jump over the counter so I could be on the same side as him. Now that I was closer, I could see there was something dripping down his face from underneath his mask. Was he… crying?

     “Are you alright, Zacharie?” I didn’t mean to make him so upset, I just wanted to know why he wears a mask all the time. I’ve never seen him so hurt before. “I’m sorry if I stepped over the line, I’m just curious.” I couldn’t tell if he had stopped crying yet, but I was determined to do anything I could to make him feel better.

     “I’m just… worried that no one will like me once they see my face. I… know from experience.” Finally the truth was out, and I had no idea how to respond to it. I couldn’t just tell him that I had seen part of his face, and I especially couldn’t tell him I liked him. That would just pile on even more awkward, and that’s the last thing we needed. But maybe…

     “I’ll bet you that’s not true. If you show me your face, I swear I will not feel any different than I do now.” I could see him slightly perk up at this. “I’ll even actually bet. If I start to dislike you in the slightest just because of your face, I’ll give you three thousand credits.” That got his attention, I was sure.

     “Y-you promise?” I nodded, there was nothing that would make me not like Zach. I even looked directly into his eyes as I said it all. “Alright, I guess…” Slowly, he began to untie the string in the back of his mask. Bringing one hand to the front of the mask to keep it from falling off, he let go of the string and tilted his head downwards so I wouldn’t see his face quite yet. As he brought his arms down to his sides, one hand still holding the mask, he ever so carefully lifted his head up and faced me. I couldn’t believe my eyes.

     “Well, is this what you wanted to see?” His face was just like any other human’s face, with a large dot on each corner of his mouth, but there was a long, deep, black scar running down his face. It went past his left eye, over his nose, and down to his cheek. I knew he noticed me staring because he began to turn away from me. I guess he took my silence as a sign that he was right, but in actuality, I was stunned at how amazing his real face was. So long had I been staring at a mask, and now I finally knew what lied underneath.

     “I was wrong…” Zach looked back at me, shocked.

     “Wh-what do you mean?” He was starting to get nervous again, I could tell.

     “I was wrong. I do feel differently than I did.” Zach turned away, looking like he was about to cry again, when I took his face in my hand and coaxed him to look back up at me. “I think you look much more amazing than before.” This time he looked like he was about to tear up, but not out of sadness, out of happiness.

     “R-r-really?” Apparently nobody had ever said anything this nice to him before. I nodded back at him and looked directly into his eyes.

     “Your scar is like a crack on a porcelain doll, it doesn’t detract from its beauty. One minor detail isn’t enough to overshadow everything else about you.” I’m pretty sure I was blushing by now, and I could see some sort of a red tint on Zach’s cheeks as well.

     “You don’t know how much that means to me…” The tears forming in his eyes were evident by now and he used his free hand to wipe them away. ”Thank you…” At this point, I couldn’t hold back any more. The emotions built up to more than I could handle, and Zach needed to know how I _really_ felt. So, without a warning of any kind, I pulled his face closer, and I pressed my lips against his.

     I felt Zach tense up with surprise, but soon enough he relaxed and started to kiss back. His lips were so soft and warm, much unlike porcelain, but the resemblance still stands. A wave of happiness rushed through me as it happened, unlike anything I’ve ever experienced in my life. I couldn’t tell how much time had passed when we finally broke, but when I looked back at Zacharie’s face, he was smiling, yet the surprise was still evident on his face.

     “B-Batter, I…” he was having trouble forming his words, but at least he could say _something_. I was stuck in a state of silent bliss, still thinking about how it felt. “I-I didn’t know you felt that way…” I nodded, because I still couldn’t find anything to say, and he wrapped his arms around me.

     “I told you I’d still like you even after you showed me your face.” Finally able to talk after so long, I smiled at Zach. “No, scratch that…” I brought myself close to his face again. “I still _love_ you after you showed me your face.” He looked like a mix of ecstatic, nervous, and confused, but he was still able to reply to me.

     “I love you too, Batter.” He kissed me once more for a few seconds before putting his mask back on. I smirked at that action.

      “Do you really need to still wear that thing?” Now that all the mushy stuff was over, we could at least try to return to how we interacted earlier. He brushed me off with a wave of his hand.

     “Just because you know what I look like under my mask, doesn’t mean anyone else does.” He gestured for me to return to the other side of the counter. “Now go back to waiting to purify this world of the evil specters.” He said that in a funny tone and I laughed. I hopped back over and picked up my baseball bat from where it rested against the surface. Before I left, however, I lifted up Zach’s mask slightly once more and gave him another kiss.

 

     “Bye.” I said as I walked out the door. I looked around, everything looked so different, so much better. It was like instead of everything having one single outcome anyway, there was actually a choice. Maybe it was because of what had happened, but whatever caused it, it felt nice. For once, I actually felt nice.

**  
The End**

**Author's Note:**

> Wow, you made it to the end! Good for you! Here, have a cookie. *gives cookie*
> 
> I did stupid break fourth wall stuff at the last minute because I felt it was necessary. (That and I really like it when characters break the fourth wall.)
> 
> Like I said in the tags, it's kinda OOC but that's just how I headcanon the characters and how they interact when the player is gone. Don't look at me like that.


End file.
